The London Array consortium, the world's largest offshore wind farm, will reduce CO2 emissions by 1.4 million tonnes a year, and effectively curb negative effects of the climate change.
Specialised vessels will be used to monitor the marine animals to ensure the safety of all forms of marine life in line with the commitment of the project to preserve the marine ecosystem. The project is located about 20 km off the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames estuary in the UK. Work began on the first phase of the project in March 2011, with175 turbines and 630 MW and capacity of 630MW. With the installation of the first foundation, the first phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. London Array is being built by Denmark's DONG Energy, Germany's E.ON and Abu Dhabi's cleantech mega-fund, MASDAR. Sultan Al Jaber, the Chief Executive of Masdar, said in a statement that "Abu Dhabi's clean energy company seeks to be a global provider of renewable energy expertise and knowledge. Masdar contributes to developing projects which help provide energy security, minimise impact of the climate change, as well as, bolster the UAE's leading role in energy sector." The Masdar's initiative to send Emirati youth to acquire practical expertise through participating in setting up and operating one of the biggest renewable energy projects in the world, contributes to knowledge transfer, etches Abu Dhabi position as a main world's centre for the renewable energy sciences, and application of the renewable energy. Eng. Al Yamahi, who holds Bachelor in Communications Engineering, was dispatched to Gemasolar power plant, which was executed by Torresol Energy in Spain. Al Yamahi participated in all Masdar projects in Spain from Nov. 2009- Aug. 2010. Mohammed Al Khawaja, who holds a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and MA in Projects Management, played a role in supporting the engineers and project managers. He represented Masdar in a number of international sessions, among others, his participation in the delegation that accompanied Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hamili, Minister of Energy during his visit to Tunisia in Oct. 2010. On the construction work of the project, two Emirati engineers, said 77 foundations out of 177 have been installed (175 wind turbines and two offshore stations). The wind turbines installed in London Array Consortium Project, about 20 km off the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames estuary in the UK, is the largest gathering platforms of wind plants operating within a single site, where the project covers an area of square kilometers. The site until now includes about 70 floating platforms and crane. The installation work includes 400 km of cables. The two substations were installed in July after they were built on three levels weighing more than 1260 tonnes each. In August 2011cables, of which each ranges between 650 - 1200 meters were installed for connecting wind turbines to each other and sub-stations at sea. The capacity of wind turbines in the first phase is 6.3 MW and their height reach 147 metres. The project will be linked via cables with new land station at Cliff Hill on the northern coast of Kent, where the substation supplies the national grid with electricity. It is planned the huge project will provide electricity when completed to more than 750, 000 homes in the United Kingdom. The Consortium expects the project will supply a million homes with electricity.
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